User:Ccc/zach

TWCZach
Personal information
Born	(1995-01-21) January 21, 1995
YouTube information
Also known as	Zach Chris twcfanchris chris121
Channel	TWCZach
Years active	?-2009, 2009-present
Genre	TWC fandom Weather Star footage Weather Star simulation gaming miscellaneous 1.38K subscribers 634 videos 1,738,927 views Joined Feb 3, 2009
Subscribers	ca. 1,380 (February 2025)
Total views	1,738,927 views (February 2025)

TWCZach, also referred to as Chris from around 2008 to 2009, is a longtime member of The Weather Channel fan community based out of the Tampa, Florida, area, having been a part of the community since at least 2008. His YouTube channel of the same name is known for a variety of clips, most notably Weather Channel recordings and Weather Star simulators, most often of the Weather Star XL. From 2008 to 2009, he ran a TWC fan forum, TWC Everything, which saw brief minor success compared to various other competitors that had emerged during that time period.

History

Zach originally became a fan of The Weather Channel in October 2007, later discovering Taiganet through a Wikipedia link in early May 2008 and using the site as a guest to observe progress on the Weather Star 4000 simulator. Zach then registered on the Taiganet forums on July 4, 2008, followed by TWC Today on July 8, 2008, where he originally registered under the name chris121. According to a post he made in 2008, Zach joined TWC Today as a result of a Google search result advertising the site as the home of a Weather Star Jr. simulation project. Zach's YouTube career had been existent for some time, beginning sometime around 2008 under the name TWCFanChris, by the time that he created his current primary YouTube channel, TWCZach, on February 3, 2009. The exact reason for the new channel was unclear, but potential reasons include Zach's movement away from the name Chris and copyright strikes on the previous channel. The name Chris, which he used between around 2008 and 2009, may have been a pseudonym; in one forum thread from 2009, Zach asked for a username change for the Weatherscan XL simulator program "since my name is Zach not Chris." In his early years in the community, he created a variety of accounts under different names for different purposes to the point of it becoming a friendly joke. By 2010, his YouTube aliases, past and then-present, had included TWCZach, TWCFanChris, Zachlandmedia, and TampaBayElevators. Being involved in a variety of communities besides the TWC community, he stated that this was meant to obscure his identity in the communities from school friends.

Because his original channel no longer exists, Zach's YouTube career prior to February 2009 is harder to assess outside of forum posts featuring his videos. The TWCFanChris channel was created sometime during or prior to late July 2008. Around then, on July 22, he suggested in a forum posts that Weather Star 4000 simulator clips were the sole content on the channel; around the same time, he began to upload recordings of TWC using a newly-bought TV tuner device. These were primarily videos from the DirecTV satellite feed of the network. Among other videos featured on the original channel included at least one Weather Star XL clip, IntelliStar simulations made in PowerPoint, at least one concept for new IntelliStar graphics, and a tutorial for animating custom versions of TWC weather icons. Beginning in September 2008, he planned to upload at least one simulation video per week with the goal of "traveling the country" in the process.

On August 1, 2008, Zach founded a new Weather Channel-themed fan forum, chris121's Everything and Anything TWC. which he described as "a forum about everything TWC from 1982-present." Only a day later, he closed and relaunched the forum, which eventually took the new name TWC Everything by early September. Future owner of TWC Today, Martin Cornick, raised concern that the forum--created in a year that was known for the establishment of many attempts at Weather Channel fan sites and forums--had little unique appeal compared to other similar services and might not survive, attempting to give Zach inspiration for how to improve it. As a result of Zach's new venture, other users, including Intelliguy, Concentric Eyewall, and then-TWC Today owner Gary Tanner, Jr., commented negatively on the general presence of many new Weather Channel fan sites and forums offering little unique contributions to the community, with some postulating that the reason they existed was to hand out positions of power. Around August 8 of the same year, Zach created a Ustream channel, The Richmond Weather Network, featuring TWC and simulator content, although in the same post, he announced it would only last through August 18. Zach created another forum, Trammell Starks Music, around August 25. Then, on September 4, he announced the possibility of hosting Local Across the 48s events on TWC Everything, prompting Gary Tanner, Jr., to dissuade him from the idea on the grounds that TWC Today had been given special permission from TWC Classics to host the events at the time. Later, Zach created a second site, including a new forum, in March 2009; this was intended to replace TWC Everything, although that forum remains in existence to this day, albeit inactive. Later, Zach resumed streaming, this time providing his own weather coverage, to Ustream around April 2009, after which he added a feature to his site allowing users to watch his live streams from the site itself. At some point during the existence of his second website, a collection of Weather Channel weather icons from 1998 to 2006 was apparently accessible, although it is unclear if these were the still image or animated version of the icon set.

In early August 2013, he announced he would be taking time away from the TWC community due to personal concerns and his duties at another large forum as a moderator, although he was eventually convinced to return by a friend in late September.

See also

• TWC Everything Forums

External links

• TWCZach YouTube channel